VIRTUAL PLAYGROUND

Several free game engines are available for Linux users, but programming with them is often less than intuitive. Panda3D is an easy-to-use engine that is accessible enough for newcomers but still powerful enough for the pros at Disney Studios.

The inventors of Micky Mouse and Donald Duck had already set up a number of real-life theme parks by the time they decided to venture into the virtual world of the Internet. In the year 2000, programmers at the Disney VR Studios started to create a software application to help them develop their 3D online game, Toontown. The result of this work is Panda3D [1], a game engine that supports the Python scripting language. In 2002, Disney publishedthe package under a free license to make it easier for universities to contribute to the project.

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